Im wanting to get a fun, fast, rwd sports saloon, and I've pretty much narrowed it down to either a gently used 335i, or a gently used m3.

My brain says get the 335i. plenty fast, plenty plush, and much cheaper, less maintenance, better mileage..etc. My other head wants an m3, even tho its pretty damn impractical. And while I could easily make the payments, the money I would save could go to a number of things. I got rid of my motorcycles (had a baby, so I dont have time to ride), so part of my justification is having a fun toy that i could track (which I probably would hardly do).

Alright..... Here's my take, having spent street and track time in both cars:

The M3 is BAD!!! Right out of the box it's one of the most fun cars I've ever driven. Balanced, smooth, fast, fun. I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

The 335 is a cool car, too. It is, however, much less balanced on the limit (more understeer). Also, the twin turbo motor is having it's share of teething problems. Most of them covered by warranty. The 335 is a stealth machine. It's way faster than it looks. Personally I'd buy the M3...

Until...

I went and drove a modded 335. The guy that I own my race car with just traded his 335i 4dr automatic in for a dealer special order 335i 4dr 6 speed with all the factory goodies. Suspension, exhaust, big wheels, braks, upgraded tuning. I had the car for a little while yesterday. It's FAST!! 3rd gear, spin the tires over any rise in the pavement, fast. It was really fun, balanced and could be pushed hard. I kinda fell in love with that thing. Now, that car had a sticker price of $68k. You've gotta be dedicated to spend that much on a 335. It's as much as the M3, but it's just as fast and way more stealthy, if that's what you're into.

Ok... The RS4. It's unbelievable. One of the guys here at work has one and I've stolen his keys on a couple occasions. It would have to be my top choice. One seriously sweet motor coupled to an awesome all wheel drive system. 60/40 power bias. When you push it hard it leans a bit toward tail out over steer. It's a completely different beast from a run of the mill S4, and definitely competes squarely with the M3. The RS4 gives you the nasty 4 pad brembo brakes, A super sweet interior.

Really, the comparison is between the RS4 and the M3. The 335 is a distant 3rd place. Sorry guys, maybe I'd consider a CTS-V, but no other american muscle car gets it done (4 dr that is).

I'm not a huge fan of BMW, but the M3 is one of the best cars on the market for it's price. How much cheaper is the 335 that your looking at than the M3? Unless the difference is very significant, I think you'll be happier with the M3 in the long run. I know a LOT of people with M3s and every last one of them loves their car to death. I don't think the maintenance costs will be that much more, either.

m3 is ~10k more for smilarly equiped. And I doubt I would mod either car.

Rs4 I have to look at. The ctsv would be nice but I just can't see spending that kind of money on a gm.
I'll probably end up with an m3. Dealer just called and offered 7k off the price of the one I inquired about.

Do some research on the CTSV - I believe it is the fastest production sedan on the market. The performance is insane. One of the corvette collectors in my office can't stop talking about the performance and espeically at that price point. I have no personal experience.

My wife has a 335 convertable and it is a great car. We bought it in 2007. We wanted the M but at that time they did not know when the M would be coming out. They said as least 10 months. I like our car but you gotta go with the M as long as you can afford it that way you don't look back and say I should have got the M. Plus the M looks bad ass. In probably a year or two we will trade in the 335 for an M.

Just like Barry Waste said the engines are great but everything else falls apart.

When I asked my friend at the BMW dealer what the deal was he said BMW's are really fun to drive for about 2 years then they fall apart.

I honestly will never buy another BMW and it's a shame cause I really like the 740. I owned a Lexus LS 430 before my BMW and I will go back to Lexus after this one, I really wish I would have just stuck with my gut and stayed there in the first place.

I've owned two Beemers & loved them both. I'm up to 300,000 combined miles in them. Other than just usual maintenance, I've been stranded only twice: a fuel pump and water pump. These were also the only major replacement items other than usual maintenance. And on top of that, I haven't driven ANYTHING as fun as my 330i ZHP (excepting possibly, my previous motorcycles).

I've owned 4 BMW's (530,545, '05 M3 SMG trans, '08 M5 current car) and a porsche boxter S. If you want a fun sporty car there is nothing that drives and handles like a porsche. I've enjoyed all my BMW's and loved my M3 (should have kept it) but my next car will be a porsche.

The 335 and M3 are both sick, just depends on what you want. Fast car, more practical, more stealth, little less maintenance/price/frills-335. All out fast performance car that can still pass as somewhat practical as a sedan, go for the dream car-M3

That LFA is totally over priced. Cool, but I'd take a Ferrari 599 over it in a second. I think it was motor trend that compared it to the Skyline last month. The Skyline was faster all the way to 100 mph. All that for less than 1/4 the price. If you want a badass car and want to blow some coin the new Mercedes SLS is soo sweet. I wouldn't mind an R8, either.

Heck, you could get a Carrera GT and still have enough coin left over to buy a Skyline as a dailer driver for what the LFA costs.

Oh hey... while you're driving the Audi's check out a E63 benz, too. They're so fun. Absolute tire smokers. They out muscle the american muscle cars. Pretty much beat them at their own tire smoking game.

Oh hey... while you're driving the Audi's check out a E63 benz, too. They're so fun. Absolute tire smokers. They out muscle the american muscle cars. Pretty much beat them at their own tire smoking game.

I love German cars. Smooth, fast and subtle.

thats probably what i will do (m3) knowing me. if I got a 335, I'd alway be wondering if I should have gotten the M

I'll never own another BMW after our experiences with an 02 540i. It was under warranty the whole time, but just the hassle of it being in the shop more than once a month on average was more than I want to ever deal with again. That being said, nothing else feels like a BMW from a handling standpoint, but a lot of that is the super aggressive alignment, which also eats tires quickly.

I had a bug for a sporty sedan for a while recently. Drove a few G35's, Lexuses, and 05-07 CTS-V's. The CTS-V's are easily twice as fun as anything else I drove, and they can be found for under $20k these days. I've owned more GM's than anything else, and they've always treated me well. Ended up not buying anything, though.

trace: I do need to look at the ctsv, but I would probably stay > 09. Think I might drive one today. 550hp does seem fun , and I guess my gm truck has lasted greater than 250k miles, so I really dont have anything against the reliability of gm, just that everything they make seems a bit plastic.

Doood... The AMG 6.3 motor is BADA$$. 500+hp and nasty amounts of torque. So much fun. The E63 is one of my all time dream cars.

Dizzy, yeah it's got an open diff, but it's got torque managment (like what toyota have done with their trucks). It applies the inboard brake on acceleration from tight corners therefore forcing toque to the outside (drive) wheel. They actually get off the corners awesome. The only thing they're not good for is smokey sideways burnouts.

Get the BMW, you won't be disappointed. I've owned a cls550 and a s63, I will never in my life own another mercedez, simply because they're way too much of a pain to maintain, and mine were both horribly unreliable. The ISF is nice, but it's a Lexus, if you can deal with that super annoying Navi (won't let you input addresses), it's something worth looking at. It does have this really cool second intake that kicks in at like 3,500RPMs and makes the car sound rediculous when driving hard - the down side of this, makes you want to floor it everywhere. Anyways, if you end up going the M3 route, depending on the year (you mentioned used), I'd get the DCT transmission. I didn't see on your profile where you live, but if you live anywhere at a decent elevation (ie: Colorado), you might end up being happier with the 335i because of the turbo. Also, if you buy used, keep in mind BMWs have 60k, 4yr warranty, I'd buy a car that wouldn't be within 1 yr of the end of the warranty when you goto sell it (that is, if you're planning on keeping it for a 2 years, make sure the car has 3 years of warranty left). The values drop a bit when they go out of warranty, and if you end up keeping it, they become like a third girlfriend, expensive and whiney.

Ha, ha..... Alright. I love turbo cars too (in fact we only own turbo cars right now), but big displacement torque is hard to beat. That is, unless you have big displacement and turbo's. I'm thinking Mercedes SL65 AMG. Now that's a good combo!!!

Ha, ha..... Alright. I love turbo cars too (in fact we only own turbo cars right now), but big displacement torque is hard to beat. That is, unless you have big displacement and turbo's. I'm thinking Mercedes SL65 AMG. Now that's a good combo!!!

Most of the little ricers make more HP/Torque per liter... Honda S2000s are like 120hp/l and I'm almost positive Mitsu Evo 9 is like 200+ hp/L (turbo though)

Evo IX is a 2.0 291hp soooo, 145.5 hp/l

That HP/L stuff sounds impressive, but it really doesn't mean much, especially when most have almost no/unusable torque. The Honda guys must have invented that useless, but impressive sounding bit of information. My lug nuts have more torque than most Hondas.

SL65 AMG Twin turbo, V12.... 700+ lb/ft of torque. If you haven't experienced that type of grunt, then you need to. There is nothing cooler than being absolutely pinned in your seat at freeway speeds as the tires squirm looking for traction.

IMO, the biggest downfall to turbo power is the lack of throttle response. Really only a big player at the track, but I really like quick, snappy motors. Turbo's sap some of that. Even the newer variable vane and smaller turbos.

IMO, the biggest downfall to turbo power is the lack of throttle response. Really only a big player at the track, but I really like quick, snappy motors. Turbo's sap some of that. Even the newer variable vane and smaller turbos.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Lack of immediate usable power. When I stab the throttle I get a response, I have to wait for boost to build for full power, though. I actually prefer the progressive building of boost- There's no feeling like it.

Check out m3forum.net if your looking for an oem based group of people. bimmerforums.com is good, but there alot of styling stuff that is very subjective. Also alot of misinformation in this thread but I guess thats why this is a wakeboard forum and not a car forum.